Conventionally, in order to reduce TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) in the office, management operation is done in which the administrator of the printing control system sets the upper limit of, e.g., the number of printouts for each department or each user in the department in using a printer or copying machine. An example of this management operation is a process when printing by a given print operation exceeds the upper limit of the number of print sheets (see patent reference 1). In patent reference 1, when printing by a given user exceeds the upper limit of the number of print sheets, the user is permitted to continue printing within a predetermined allowable range.
Another management operation provides a printing control system which restricts print functions executable by the user by customizing a printer driver, particularly default values (initial values) of print settings accessory to the printer driver and distributing the customized printer driver to a user PC. As an example of this printing control system, the system comprehensively manages printer drivers to be installed in PCs in the printing system, and distributes an arbitrary driver to each PC with arbitrary initial settings by using the network (see patent reference 2). In patent reference 2, the administrator of the printing control system creates an initial driver setting file in advance, and saves it together with a printer driver in a driver management server. In distributing a driver, a set of the printer driver and setting file is distributed to the PC.    [Patent Reference 1] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-085419    [Patent Reference 2] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-213132
However, in the former one of the above prior arts, no means for allowing the user to recognize that printing exceeds the upper limit of the number of print sheets is prepared. Although printing exceeds the upper limit of the number of print sheets, the user may execute printing from the PC.
In the latter prior art, when printing by a given user exceeds the upper limit of the number of print sheets and it becomes difficult to execute printing with the current driver settings, a print request from the user can be restricted by distributing a new setting file. However, every time a new restriction is imposed, the administrator of the printing control system must create and distribute a setting file, increasing the burden on the administrator of the printing control system.
That is, according to the prior arts, much labor is required for the administrator to flexibly control printouts by each user in the printing control system which restricts printouts by each user.